Network Security

This report focuses on network threats faced by Afterpay, an Australian financial technology company, and discusses two major types of threats: cryptojacking and DDoS attacks. It also highlights essential network security devices such as IDS and firewall to avoid these threats.

Running head: Network security
Network security
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author note

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NETWORK SECURITY
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Network threats..........................................................................................................................2
Cryptojacking.........................................................................................................................2
DDoS attack...........................................................................................................................3
Network security devices...........................................................................................................3
Instruction detection System (IDS)........................................................................................3
Firewall..................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
Reference....................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Threat in case of the network security, explains those things which have capabilities
to create harm to the network or cyber system. As the network devices can be exposed and
vulnerable; hence, for protecting the sensitive information providing strong security to the
network devices is vital. This report is going to focus on the network threats associated with
the Australia based financial technology company, named Afterpay. As the main motive of
this organization is to perform several financial transaction, therefore, it always stay ahead in
the list of the attackers. Two major type of network threats that might exploit the network of
Afterpay is going to be discussed here. In addition the essential network security devices for
avoiding these is also going to highlight here.
Network threats
Finance industries like Afterpay faces several threats and attacks by the network
attackers majorly due to their core operations. However, two major type of threat that the
Australian financial organization Afterpay faces are as follows;
Cryptojacking
In current age, the financial organizations are majorly relies on the process of
cryptography for carrying out secure financial transaction. Cryptocurrency is the digital asset,
designed for controlling and performing several financial transactions. With the increasing
popularity of this technique, the hackers are also coming up with ingenious ideas of for
exploiting the network system of the financial industry. The hackers can load several mining
codes to the victim’s network system and use their CPU resources for mining the
cryptocurrency, and affecting their system operations (Sigler 2018).

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DDoS attack
Distributed denial of services is the most common form of network threats, which
intended to overwhelm the victim’s server by attacking on their sensible data and making the
same fully inoperable (Wang et al. 2015). As the operations of Afterpay is mostly relies on
the online transaction of money; it becomes easy for the attackers to conduct the disastrous
activity.
Network security devices
Instruction detection System (IDS)
An IDS strengthens the network security by encountering the malicious software or
attacker over the network so that it will be easy for the IT experts of Afterpay to prevent the
disastrous network problem. Investing in the IDS for responding to the cyber-attacks may be
less costly as compare to rectifying the occurred damage and dealing with its associated legal
issues (Liao et al.2013).
Firewall
This network device isolates from one network from other, thereby minimizing the
chances of attacks. Mainly, the Web application firewalls (WAF) are designed to give web
applications securities via application of several rules in the HTTP conversation. On vital
advantages of using the WAF is that, it is efficient in detecting the DDoS attacks and the
source of attack in the early stage (Razzaq et al.2013).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it is clear that, for carrying out the financial
transaction successfully, Afterpay need to avoid the network threats such as cryptojacking
and DDoS attacks by implementing several network security devices such as WAF and IDS.

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This report has discussed the two type of network threats and the necessary network devices
to avoid these threats.

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Reference
Liao, H.J., Lin, C.H.R., Lin, Y.C. and Tung, K.Y., 2013. Intrusion detection system: A
comprehensive review. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 36(1), pp.16-24.
Razzaq, A., Hur, A., Shahbaz, S., Masood, M. and Ahmad, H.F., 2013, March. Critical
analysis on web application firewall solutions. In 2013 IEEE Eleventh International
Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems (ISADS) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Sigler, K., 2018. Crypto-jacking: how cyber-criminals are exploiting the crypto-currency
boom. Computer Fraud & Security, 2018(9), pp.12-14.
Wang, B., Zheng, Y., Lou, W. and Hou, Y.T., 2015. DDoS attack protection in the era of
cloud computing and software-defined networking. Computer Networks, 81, pp.308-319.